The European Court of Auditors finds that the administrative costs of implementing structural and investment funds are relatively low compared to those of other similar programmes financed by the EU and international funds, according to a report published on Thursday 16 April. However, the Court regrets the lack of data to assess the impact of the simplification of the rules.
In the Court's view, the overall cost presented by the Commission for the implementation of the Cohesion Policy Funds was low (around 14,4 billion euro for technical assistance between 2014-2020, out of a total budget of €472,9 billion) compared to other EU funds and internationally funded programmes.
"However, we concluded that the Commission had not collected underlying data on costs that were complete, consistent and coherent enough to allow this data to be used, for example for assessing the impact of simplifying EU rules on how to implement the Cohesion policy funds", the report says.
The Court therefore makes a series of recommendations to the Commission: - improving the approach to administrative cost studies; - assess whether reductions in administrative costs have been achieved; - better analyse administrative practices at national level.
To consult the report: https://bit.ly/2RI0Hjf (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)